In the latest issue of The Magazine (AppStore) Harry Marks talks about the pitfalls of self-publishing. In his mind it all comes down to the quality of writing being less than it should because you miss specialized staff in your topic. Even hiring an editor io not quite enough since freelance editors are generalists.

The end is what really stuck out to me though.

Writers get better by writing more, more often. If we’re writing more and we don’t realize it’s bad, then how will we get any better? (emphasis mine)

That’s an entirely legitimate question. One of the reasons I’ve been trying to get articles out on some other larger blogs with proper editors is that I’m going to get some critique. Yes I’ll get some coverage, but I want to be better at crafting an article. I’m only going to get better at that if I get someone to read my work and ask me hard questions about my points. High quality steel is refined in a fire.

What’s your fire?